Alvin Bragg Upends Trump's 'Protect Melania' Story

• The statement of facts released by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg revealed evidence that Donald Trump had ordered his lawyer to delay payments to prevent a story of his infidelity from being published before the 2016 election.
• This contradicts Trump's defense of making the payments to protect his marriage with Melania Trump and his son Barron Trump.

Evidence released by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has upended former President Donald Trump's "Melania defense" in the 34-felony count indictment against the Republican.

The statement of facts filed by Bragg on Tuesday revealed that Trump had ordered one of his lawyers to delay paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels "as long as possible," including waiting until after the 2016 election so that if he had lost, he could "avoid paying altogether."

"At the point it would not matter if the story became public," the filing read.

However, if Bragg has evidence that Trump only cared about when a story about his alleged infidelity was publicized, it would be difficult for Trump to argue that he had made the hush money payments to "protect" his marriage with Melania Trump and his youngest son, Barron Trump, from finding about it.

That's because if Trump was OK with the story being published—as long as it was after an electoral defeat—it would imply that he was fine with a supposed affair eventually being revealed to his wife.

"Here's the chef's kiss," Joyce Vance, legal analyst for MSNBC, said. "They structured at least one of the deals so they wouldn't have to pay out funds if Trump lost the election. It was never about protecting Melania."

Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, has denied having an affair with Daniels. He has also accused prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated witch-hunt.

Last month, Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina floated the idea of using such a defense, telling ABC's Good Morning America that the payments are "not directly related to the campaign."

"He made this with personal funds to prevent something coming out [that was] false but embarrassing to himself, his family, his young son," Tacopina said.

"Bragg's office is trying to anticipate Trump's legal and factual defenses and get out ahead of them," former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, Neama Rahmani, told Newsweek.

Former federal prosecutor and elected state attorney Michael McAuliffe agreed that the statement of facts reveals Bragg has additional factual detail that will disprove the Melania defense. He told Newsweek the most obvious piece of evidence working against Trump was the timing of the hush money payments

"None of it occurred in a vacuum," McAuliffe said. "Additionally, the statement of facts refer to recordings, contemporaneous written documents, and sworn testimony all focusing on reasons for the catch and kill scheme that are not concern for his wife."

In anticipation of the so-called Melania defense, prosecutors have pointed to evidence that Trump and his then-fixer Michael Cohen were scheming with David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, to kill negative stories before the election.

"That's why the separate statement of facts, which is not needed or typical in a criminal prosecution, sets out the election-related purpose of the payments in detail," Rahmani said.

Dave Aronberg, the State Attorney for Palm Beach County, also told Newsweek that while the new facts undermine Trump's potential defense of protecting his family, the former president has already made another admission that unravels that defense.

Because Trump has previously denied having any sexual encounters with Daniel, Aronberg said it would be difficult to say he was trying to shield Melania if there was nothing to shield her from.

But even if Trump was trying to mitigate the fallout that an affair could have on his personal life, McAuliffe pointed out that those concerns are not mutually exclusive with the concerns he may have had about his political life.

Nonetheless, Rahmani said there's a long road ahead for prosecutors.

"This case is far from a clear win," he said. "Trump's lawyers have decent legal and factual defenses, so the state needs to make sure that they have responses ready."

CORRECTION 04/06/2023 1:50 p.m. EST: This story was updated to correctly spell Barron Trump's name and include additional details.